BS BOOK REVIEWERS: Scarlet

Scarlet

Scarlet is the second book in The Lunar Chronicles series by Marissa Meyer. You’ll find my review and specific criticisms for the first book, Cinder, right below this review. Let me say that I was on the fence with Cinder, so I was a little reluctant to read this one because of that. I’m so glad that I did, though; I enjoyed this one much more than Cinder.

Why did I like this one better? Easy. Because of Scarlet and Wolf. Wow! They had so much more emotional intensity than Cinder and Kai ever did in the first book. In fact, I found myself wanting to hurry up and get back to them in the story. Yes, Cinder and Kai are both featured in this one, but there is no relationship progression (absolutely none) between them-which was a letdown because I was hoping that the author would correct this in the second one. As it was, it was very hard to decipher Kai’s feelings for Cinder in the first one; the guy has a mean poker face. So, those of you looking for lots of Cinder and Kai interactions in Scarlet will be disappointed on that end, as was I.

Scarlet is a fairy tale re-telling just as Cinder was, but this time we have some new characters introduced and ones that are better developed than some of the characters in Cinder. The two main ones are Scarlet, a.k.a. Little Red Riding Hood, and Wolf (self-explanatory). Wolf is one of those characters that you’re not sure if he’s the good guy or the bad guy, and there’s a little bit of a gray area with him, but you still like him. I did anyway. The majority of the book follows Scarlet, but there are also POV’s from Cinder and Kai, as well.

What we see of Cinder is of her escaping the prison and later, as a wanted fugitive under penalty of death, running for her life. We also see Kai, but his scenes are infrequent and most of them revolve around what he can do for his people to stop the impending war with the Lunars. Scarlet’s scenes have to do with her grandmother’s disappearance, of course-this is a re-telling of Little Red Riding Hood. When she goes to the city looking for her missing grandmother, she meets up with a street fighter named Wolf. Together, they both set out to get to the bottom of the mystery, but Wolf’s intentions are not quite as clear.

Towards the end of the story, Cinder, Scarlet and Wolf meet up, and it’s interesting to see their interaction and how their individual stories start to overlap with each others. I’m really looking forward to the third book now; it’s called Cress and will follow Rapunzel. It will be interesting to see how Meyer is able to successfully mesh her particular story with the others. Additionally, I can’t wait for the evil Lunar Queen to get her just due.

I highly recommend Scarlet, but I think it would be prudent to read Cinder, if you haven’t, because of the overlapping storyline arc and the on-going appearance of main characters from the first book.

Scarlet – 4.5 stars out of 5 stars!